At 3am you will usually hear her before you see her. Listen for the slide. A slipper dragged across the carpet sounds different from one lifted and set down, and that difference often shows up before anything reaches the floor. You do not need to be awake for the whole trip to catch it. You need to know what to look at when you are up.
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Check the feet in this order
Start with the slippers, because they are the easiest thing to see. Look at the soles after she gets back into bed. Wear that sits on one side, a heel worn flat, or a sole that has gone smooth in one spot tells you she is landing unevenly. Next, watch the toes at the bedroom door and at the edge of the bathroom rug. A toe that catches on the sill or the rug edge, or a foot that lifts a little higher than it did before, is the first sign of trouble on the route. Then look at her step. Shorter steps, feet set wider apart than they used to be, or a pause between each step means she is working harder to stay balanced. Last, watch where her eyes go. If she is looking down at the floor for most of the trip, she is probably checking the ground before each step, and that usually means she does not trust it.
Do these checks on a normal daytime walk too, with her at her usual pace. Night walks are harder to judge because the light is low and she is half awake. Daytime gives you the baseline you will compare against.
What to write down
Keep a short note in the same place as the fall log, and put down only what you saw, not what you think it means. Write the stop where the change showed up, such as the bed edge, the doorway or the bathroom rug. Note what the feet did, in plain words: scuffed, toe caught, wider stance, paused between steps, looking at the floor. Note the slipper wear if you noticed it. Write the time of night and whether she was half awake or fully awake. Write whether she wore her glasses. If you can, take a photo of the slippers with the soles facing up. Over a few weeks, these notes show whether the change is steady or comes and goes.
What to take to the physician
Bring the note to her doctor, and do not try to name the cause yourself. Ask whether a change in how she walks needs an exam, and whether a walk check or a balance check belongs in her next visit. Ask what she should do if the change is sudden rather than gradual. Clinical questions belong with the doctor, so take what you saw and let the doctor decide what it means.
If she has already fallen, or if her feet suddenly look different from one night to the next, do not wait for the next appointment. Use the steps in Mom Keeps Falling: the first ten minutes after a fall first, then call her doctor. If you want to see how this desk sources the guidance behind these steps, the Sources page lists them.